GUEST COLUMN: Before Parks, there was Howard

David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito

Published: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 7:10 p.m.

As we approach the anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, it is time to not only acknowledge Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. but also the unsung contributions of earlier activists. Few deserve recognition more than Dr. T.R.M. Howard.

Only four days before Parks refused to give up her seat, she had attended Howard’s fiery speech before an overflow crowd at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. The speech dealt with the recent murder of Emmett Till. The official host for the event was a largely unknown 26-year-old pastor named Martin Luther King Jr. When Parks was arrested on Dec. 1, Howard’s speech was still headline news in the local black press.

By that time, Howard had long been a civil rights legend for blacks in Montgomery and elsewhere. Born into poverty in Murray, Ky., in 1908, he had graduated from medical school with the help of a local white doctor who recognized his talents and determination. In 1941, Howard accepted a post as chief surgeon of the all-black Taborian Hospital in Mound Bayou, Miss. It was a facility built completely without governmental aid and supported primarily through the membership dues of black fraternal society. For more than two decades, the hospital gave affordable and high-quality health care to thousands of black sharecroppers and tenants.

By the beginning of the 1950s, Howard’s shrewd investments made him one of the wealthiest blacks in Mississippi. His properties came to include a thousand acre plantation, home construction firm, insurance company, a restaurant with a beer garden, the largest swimming pool for blacks in the state, and even a small zoo.

Howard fearlessly, and often successfully, faced down segregationists as the founder and head of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, a combination civil rights and pro-self-help organization. He was at the top of a local Klan death list and was once smuggled out of a civil rights meeting in a casket.

Despite the fact that he lived in the belly of the Jim Crow beast, Howard was an “in-your-face” public figure who was not afraid, for example, to publicly joke that the late Sen. Theodore Bilbo had just sent a message to the current governor from hell.

Howard gave Medgar Evers his first job out of college and was his civil rights mentor. When a white assassin tragically cut down Evers in 1963, Howard gave the eulogy. He was also pivotal in introducing Fannie Lou Hamer to civil rights. A decade after she met Howard, she achieved national prominence at the Democratic national convention when she spoke out against the seating of an all-white delegation from Mississippi.

Howard’s civil rights rallies in the middle of the rural Mississippi Delta during the early 1950s sometimes attracted crowds of 10,000 and not only provided voter information but gave a great show, including gospel singers such as Mahalia Jackson. Howard was in some ways the P.T. Barnum of civil rights. His style was the complete opposite of the Gandhian stereotype we sometimes associate with civil rights leaders.

A Republican, he not only urged blacks to vote but also to go into business and engage in self-help rather than turn to the government. He fearlessly and successfully defended himself and his supporters with a small arsenal of weapons including a Thompson submachine gun.

In 1952, three years before to the Montgomery protest, Howard’s Regional Council of Negro Leadership organized a successful boycott against service stations that refused to provide restrooms for blacks. As part of this campaign, the council distributed 50,000 bumper stickers bearing the slogan “Don’t Buy Gas Where You Can’t Use the Restroom.”

In August 1955, Howard was instrumental in finding witnesses and evidence in the Emmett Till murder case. The discovery of Till’s beaten, severely disfigured body in the Tallahatchie River and the acquittal of his accused killers led to national revulsion, especially among blacks.

But Howard’s role in publicizing the Till case in 1955 was to have lasting consequences. One of these may well been the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Many years later, Parks reported that she was thinking of Till, a focal point of Howard’s address in that city, when she made her decision to act.

David T. Beito is a professor in the Department of History at University of Alabama, and an author. Linda Royster Beito is chair of social sciences at Stillman College and wrote, “Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard’s Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power.”

<p>As we approach the anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, it is time to not only acknowledge Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. but also the unsung contributions of earlier activists. Few deserve recognition more than Dr. T.R.M. Howard. </p><p>Only four days before Parks refused to give up her seat, she had attended Howard's fiery speech before an overflow crowd at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. The speech dealt with the recent murder of Emmett Till. The official host for the event was a largely unknown 26-year-old pastor named Martin Luther King Jr. When Parks was arrested on Dec. 1, Howard's speech was still headline news in the local black press.</p><p>By that time, Howard had long been a civil rights legend for blacks in Montgomery and elsewhere. Born into poverty in Murray, Ky., in 1908, he had graduated from medical school with the help of a local white doctor who recognized his talents and determination. In 1941, Howard accepted a post as chief surgeon of the all-black Taborian Hospital in Mound Bayou, Miss. It was a facility built completely without governmental aid and supported primarily through the membership dues of black fraternal society. For more than two decades, the hospital gave affordable and high-quality health care to thousands of black sharecroppers and tenants.</p><p>By the beginning of the 1950s, Howard's shrewd investments made him one of the wealthiest blacks in Mississippi. His properties came to include a thousand acre plantation, home construction firm, insurance company, a restaurant with a beer garden, the largest swimming pool for blacks in the state, and even a small zoo.</p><p>Howard fearlessly, and often successfully, faced down segregationists as the founder and head of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, a combination civil rights and pro-self-help organization. He was at the top of a local Klan death list and was once smuggled out of a civil rights meeting in a casket.</p><p>Despite the fact that he lived in the belly of the Jim Crow beast, Howard was an “in-your-face” public figure who was not afraid, for example, to publicly joke that the late Sen. Theodore Bilbo had just sent a message to the current governor from hell. </p><p>Howard gave Medgar Evers his first job out of college and was his civil rights mentor. When a white assassin tragically cut down Evers in 1963, Howard gave the eulogy. He was also pivotal in introducing Fannie Lou Hamer to civil rights. A decade after she met Howard, she achieved national prominence at the Democratic national convention when she spoke out against the seating of an all-white delegation from Mississippi.</p><p>Howard's civil rights rallies in the middle of the rural Mississippi Delta during the early 1950s sometimes attracted crowds of 10,000 and not only provided voter information but gave a great show, including gospel singers such as Mahalia Jackson. Howard was in some ways the P.T. Barnum of civil rights. His style was the complete opposite of the Gandhian stereotype we sometimes associate with civil rights leaders.</p><p>A Republican, he not only urged blacks to vote but also to go into business and engage in self-help rather than turn to the government. He fearlessly and successfully defended himself and his supporters with a small arsenal of weapons including a Thompson submachine gun.</p><p>In 1952, three years before to the Montgomery protest, Howard's Regional Council of Negro Leadership organized a successful boycott against service stations that refused to provide restrooms for blacks. As part of this campaign, the council distributed 50,000 bumper stickers bearing the slogan “Don't Buy Gas Where You Can't Use the Restroom.”</p><p>In August 1955, Howard was instrumental in finding witnesses and evidence in the Emmett Till murder case. The discovery of Till's beaten, severely disfigured body in the Tallahatchie River and the acquittal of his accused killers led to national revulsion, especially among blacks. </p><p>But Howard's role in publicizing the Till case in 1955 was to have lasting consequences. One of these may well been the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Many years later, Parks reported that she was thinking of Till, a focal point of Howard's address in that city, when she made her decision to act.</p><p>David T. Beito is a professor in the Department of History at University of Alabama, and an author. Linda Royster Beito is chair of social sciences at Stillman College and wrote, “Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power.”</p>